Well, that along with imperialism, according to Weasel Zippers. Its the kind of thing that almost writes its own punchline, and really, no further comment is necessary, but I will say this much. He is in a way almost, just slightly, on to something. Just maybe. Of course I'm not talking about the capitalism part, but let's face it, if there were life on Mars at any given time-and here I'm talking about sentient life, with consciousness and intelligence-they would have been living in a world that was far more precariously situated than is our own earth. Their ecosystem would have been weak, by nature of the relative smallness of the planet and its distance from the sun. Add to this the evident lack of any of the great, massive, and natural geological boundaries that separate our own continents, and diverse peoples, and you have a trifecta of disaster waiting to unfold, a situation where a rising and increasingly competitive group of peoples engaged in constant warfare and destruction might never have made it past their own bronze age. The wholesale slaughter not only of people, but of livestock, forests, and water supplies with the aim of destroying an enemy population, the constant situation of reprisals and counter-reprisals in a world that would have had meager resources to begin with, and little in the way of natural protection, might well have been devastating, and after so long, irreversible. It is something to think about.
Therefore, as foolish as many of Chavez's statements are, maybe in this case he has somewhat of a point, albeit one polluted with his ideologically poisoned attitudes. I know it might be hard to accept, but for just one example, try to picture the ancient Egyptians and the Babylonian Empires going at each other, or maybe the Punic Wars, the last one of which ended with Rome utterly destroying Carthage. Or even the Indian Wars in the US, or the Crusades, and the Islamic incursions into Europe that preceded and instigated them. Or you could even factor in a more recent time, such as WW II, and the Nazi blitzkriegs, particularly the war on the Russian Front.
Now picture any of that taking place, not on Earth, but on a small planet half our size, and twice the distance from the sun and you start to get the idea.
